macOS 10.12 Sierra Unsupported Macs Thread

[Luigi222]

Th

I can post a complete guide in a bit.

For now, I can explain what I did.

~~~~

I have an external USB drive with a clean copy of macOS Sierra installed on it. I did this by using a supported Mac to install Sierra. Nothing odd here.

Then, I downloaded @parrotgeek1 's ZIP (attached to my post) and ran it on the drive with Sierra installed on it.

That's it. You should just be able to plug the drive into an unsupported Mac and use Option+boot or Startup Disk to boot from it.

WOW that's insane going to try that out on my Macbook pro 17 mid 2009 and I will post here the result!!

 

[NOTNlCE]

Broadcom4331.kext inside the IO80211Family.kext is handling WiFi for me.

Broadcom BCM4322 Wireless Card

Vendor: 14E4
Device: 432B
SubV: 106B
SubD: 008E

Working fine.

EDIT:

I see front post has been updated with a new list. I don't own machines old enough to test non-working WiFi.

I've updated the first post with my 3-step quick guide.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It SHOULD be possible to use a Fake PCI ID injector kext to spoof the BCM4321 as BCM4322 to allow for working WiFi, OR write another injector kext for the BCM4321 device ID. Unfortunately, I don't have a machine with that card to test. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Siannath]

Once I get this working on all machines, I'm going to write a easy to use patcher that will allow users to easily modify, install, and run Sierra on unsupported Macs.

Dude, that would be awesome!

 

[filipe.esposito]

IT WORKS! MacBook Pro 5,5 mid 2009 running macOS Sierra with USB/Trackpad/Wi-Fi. Thanks a lot for everyone!

 

[adsalpha]

How'd it be about updates? Just installing from MAS or need to patch'em too?

 

[dosdude1]

Sierra runs perfectly on my '08 iMac, with the exception of the BCM4321 WiFi card. Only modifications are parrotgeek1's USB Injector kext and a modified PlatformSupport.plist.

 

[fom]

Hi all,

Thanks to @TMRJIJ I was able to get a clean install restored onto my MacBook Pro 5,5 mid 2009. Weirdly, @parrotgeek1's script worked for me - it did throw an error at the end but I've booted and everything seems to be ok - USB and keyboard/trackpad etc seem all fine. This is a machine upgraded to a Sandisk Extreme SSD and 8GB ram. I did nothing more than restore to a partition via CCC and run the script.

Thanks for this amazing work - if I can help at all with debugging let me know!

Terrific news! Same machine and can't wait! Wish luck for everyone's mac here!
Although My MacbookPro5,5 is already having some problem on El Cap. When VM is open, if I plug in a portable hard drive, the mac wouldn't recognize it. Seems some electric problem on the USB ports. Also mic is not working but dictation shows it recognizes sound. All these worked fine after I upgraded with a 240GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD (8GB ram had been upgraded long ago). But then several months later those problems showed. Oh and Wifi problems too. Weird.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Sierra runs perfectly on my '08 iMac, with the exception of the BCM4321 WiFi card. Only modifications are parrotgeek1's USB Injector kext and a modified PlatformSupport.plist.

Could you boot into El Cap and let me know which Kext is handling the WiFi there? If it's using the same BRCM43XX kext, we might be able to create another injector for the BCM4321 or spoof it as BCM4322.

 

[dosdude1]

This is the loaded WiFi kext in El Capitan for the BCM4321.

 

[vivo]

Hello,

Just to say i installed on my Mac Pro 2008 2x quadcore 2,8 ghz, 16 gb RAM, apricorn x2 with 2x 850 evo's and EFI flashed Nvidia Asus GT 640 2gb ram working eh super ?

Apple, can you (please) change the app store check on MP08 please ?

Runs already like butter here. I like how my RME Fireface 400 via firewire works flawlessly, my Cog 2016 version build with Xcode 8 beta and even my music programs like Cubase and Studio One seem to work OK

Heck, I even got my USB3 pci-express card running (nec, renesas) thanks to rehabman's kext that I re-codesigned with my dev certificate. Not seen in sys profiler but my 2 usb3 disks connected to a samsung 32" monitor with usb3 hub just work.

....

edit: oh and Siri just works.

 

[Czo]

Could you boot into El Cap and let me know which Kext is handling the WiFi there? If it's using the same BRCM43XX kext, we might be able to create another injector for the BCM4321 or spoof it as BCM4322.

On El Capitan, i see the following:

AirPortBrcm4331.kext:
- pci14e4,4331
- pci14e4,4353
- pci14e4,432b

AirPortBrcm4360.kext
- pci14e4,43ba
- pci14e4,43a3
- pci14e4,43a0
- pci14e4,4331
- pci14e4,4353

AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext
- pci106b,004e
- pci14e4,4311
- pci14e4,4312
- pci14e4,4313
- pci14e4,4318
- pci14e4,4319
- pci14e4,431a
- pci14e4,4320
- pci14e4,4324
- pci14e4,4325
- pci14e4,4328
- pci14e4,432c
- pci14e4,432d

 

[NOTNlCE]

Looks like they're handled by a different kext. Might be more than an injector needed.

Worst case scenario is WiFI card replacement needed.

 

[dosdude1]

On El Capitan, i see the following:

AirPortBrcm4331.kext:
- pci14e4,4331
- pci14e4,4353
- pci14e4,432b

AirPortBrcm4360.kext
- pci14e4,43ba
- pci14e4,43a3
- pci14e4,43a0
- pci14e4,4331
- pci14e4,4353

AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext
- pci106b,004e
- pci14e4,4311
- pci14e4,4312
- pci14e4,4313
- pci14e4,4318
- pci14e4,4319
- pci14e4,431a
- pci14e4,4320
- pci14e4,4324
- pci14e4,4325
- pci14e4,4328
- pci14e4,432c
- pci14e4,432d

One thing I noticed though... AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext doesn't even exist in macOS Sierra.

 

[parrotgeek1]

Don't know if people are waiting on @parrotgeek1 's script, but if you are, I took the liberty of fixing the typo... Hope that's OK. Give it a shot, I don't own an unsupported Mac anymore or I would try it myself.

EDIT: It won't let me just upload the script, so here's the whole zip again.

--------------------



Looks like the 4328 works fine. I wonder if we can spoof the device ID on 4322s to 4328, which seem to exist in the kexts.

EDIT: I have access to an Early 09 iMac today with uses the 4322 chipset. I'll work on a device ID spoof. Can someone with a 4328 Broadcom card tell me which Kext is handling their WiFi?

I meant 4321 is not supported. I know 4322 is fine. Good idea to spoof though

 

[Czo]

One thing I noticed though... AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext doesn't even exist in macOS Sierra.

Can you check that any of the pci ids that currently controlled by AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext exists in any other kext on Sierra? If, maybe we can use that kext, to spoof the driver. Until this or next weekend, i cant test Sierra on my macs, so currently i cant check it for myself.

 

[fom]

IT WORKS! MacBook Pro 5,5 mid 2009 running macOS Sierra with USB/Trackpad/Wi-Fi. Thanks a lot for everyone!

Great! I wonder if we have to install a new OS or we could just upgrade when GM version comes out?

 

[NOTNlCE]

I meant 4321 is not supported. I know 4322 is fine. Good idea to spoof though

We can give it a shot. 4321 is handled by a different kext in previous releases, it seems. Could also try loading the El Cap kext, but would require kext-dev-mode and SIP disable most likely...

 

[macsba]

Don't know if people are waiting on @parrotgeek1 's script, but if you are, I took the liberty of fixing the typo... Hope that's OK. Give it a shot, I don't own an unsupported Mac anymore or I would try it myself.

EDIT: It won't let me just upload the script, so here's the whole zip again.

--------------------



Looks like the 4328 works fine. I wonder if we can spoof the device ID on 4322s to 4328, which seem to exist in the kexts.

EDIT: I have access to an Early 09 iMac today with uses the 4322 chipset. I'll work on a device ID spoof. Can someone with a 4328 Broadcom card tell me which Kext is handling their WiFi?

Sorry, it doesn't work for the MacBook Pro 5,1 (late 2008 unibody). I still have the frozen trackpad/keyboard problem.

I'll still be here.

 

[WarHeadz]

I can post a complete guide in a bit.

For now, I can explain what I did.

~~~~

I have an external USB drive with a clean copy of macOS Sierra installed on it. I did this by using a supported Mac to install Sierra. Nothing odd here.

Then, I downloaded @parrotgeek1 's ZIP (attached to my post) and ran it on the drive with Sierra installed on it.

That's it. You should just be able to plug the drive into an unsupported Mac and use Option+boot or Startup Disk to boot from it.

But isn't that just running it from a flash drive on an unsupported mac? Or can you install it onto the unsupported computer's internal drive?

 

[NOTNlCE]

But isn't that just running it from a flash drive on an unsupported mac? Or can you install it onto the unsupported computer's internal drive?

Shouldn't make a difference. If anything, being able to boot from the flash drive is MORE of an indication that the USB injector works.

 

[WarHeadz]

Shouldn't make a difference. If anything, being able to boot from the flash drive is MORE of an indication that the USB injector works.

But how would you install it onto the internal drive from a USB drive with a full installation on it as opposed to just a bootable installer flash drive?

 

[NOTNlCE]

But how would you install it onto the internal drive from a USB drive full a full installation on it as opposed to just a bootable installer flash drive?

Still a work in progress, I believe. We don't have a patched installer or anything like that yet. The way to do it currently, (and keep in mind, it's only been a few days since we got this) is to physically remove the drive from the target machine and do the work on it that way.

 

[dosdude1]

If someone could see what kext is loaded with a BCM4322 card, that'd be great... I can't figure out what kext has the same device IDs as AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext.

 

[Czo]

4322 drived by the AirPortBrcm4331.kext, according to pci ids database. So, we need to try to add older pci ids to the 4331 kext.

 

[NOTNlCE]

If someone could see what kext is loaded with a BCM4322 card, that'd be great... I can't figure out what kext has the same device IDs as AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext.

The kext loaded with 4322 is the AirPortBrcm4331.kext, so it's two separate kexts even though the chipset is just one number away.